introduction
*The original author of this article is Aaron Xu.
body
After graduating from Shanghai Medical College in 1915, I went to work as a doctor at the Tianjin Public Women's Medical Bureau. The Women's Medical Bureau was originally named "Beiyang Women's Hospital" because the address was near Dongmen Shuige, commonly known as Shuige Hospital, and it was the only maternity and infant hospital in Tianjin. Later, I set up my own clinic and practiced medicine in Tianjin for more than 50 years, of which Yuan Shikai's dependents were patrons, and I became a perennial doctor of the Yuan family. Because of frequent exchanges, he has seen and heard a lot about the situation of Yuan Shikai's family. The recollections are described below.
Yuan Shikai has more than 300 hectares of land in Xiangcheng County, Henan; In Henan Zhangdehuanshang Village, there are 300 hectares of land and a large mansion, including a garden, with a total of more than 200 houses; There are two large houses in Beijing Sila Hutong and Fried Bean Hutong; The real estate around Diwei Road in Tianjin is owned by the Yuan family, which is leased by the steward of the Yuan family in the name of Sanyi Company, and the eldest concubines Shen Shi and Yuan Kewen once lived here; There were hundreds of buildings in the small white building (now Jianshe Road) in the British Concession of Tianjin, and later Yuan's dependents lived here; According to the Yuen family, Yuen once owned a property in Hong Kong, which was handled by Yuen Naikuan, the head of the Yuen family. After Yuan Shikai's death, Yuan Naikuan did not admit that there was such an incident, and the Yuan family could not find the basis for the deed, so they did not investigate it deeply. The Yuan family held a large number of stocks in Qixin Yanggray Company, Kailuan Mineral Bureau, Jiangnan Cement Company, etc., plus bank deposits and antique jewelry, etc., I don't know the exact number. Yuan Kehuan later became the manager of Qixin Gray Company because the Yuan family was a major shareholder. Yuan's family finances used to be kept by the second concubine Wu, but because Yuan Kewen asked for a bank passbook of 100,000 yuan from Wu's hand, Yuan Shikai thought that Wu was weak and incompetent, so he handed over to the fifth concubine Yang Shi instead. After Yuan Shikai's death, Wu lived in Tianjin, and when the electric light company came to collect electricity bills every month, the concierge asked Wu for the money in his hand, secretly swallowed it, and said to the toll collector: "If you owe one, you will give it next time." "It's still the same next time. To the third concierge to take three months' arrears slips, Wu still pays. There are many classes of this event. Among Yuan's concubines, the Yang family was the most stringent, and everyone in the family was fearless. When Yuan's sons separated, according to Yuan's old steward (now forgotten his name), "The five old ladies (referring to the Yang family) took out less than half of the good things. Therefore, the Yang family received the most inheritance from Yuan Shikai. After Yang's death, when her four sons, Kehuan, Kexuan, Kejiu, and Ke'an, separated, in addition to real estate, deposits, and precious items, only the best mahjong tiles were allocated 72 pairs each. This is what Sun Yongxi, the wife of Keqi, said to me.
When Yuan Shikai was critically ill, except for Yuan Keding, he gave each son 150,000 yuan alone. At that time, the five concubines Yang Shi, the sixth concubine Ye Shi, and the eighth concubine and the ninth concubine Liu Shi were all pregnant, because they did not know whether they were men or women, they set aside another 600,000 yuan for safekeeping, and if a man was born, he would pay it according to the previous practice, and the daughter would be kept as a public expense for future subsidies for each room. Later, in addition to the six concubines Ye Shisheng and the ninth concubine Liu Shisheng and the widow of Kefan, the five concubines and the eight concubines all gave birth to daughters.
Two
Yuan Shikai's aunt and children smoked opium for one-half. The kitchen stove fires day and night. Whoever gets up after 3 o'clock in the afternoon will open the meal at any time, and this fee will be paid by the kitchen manager separately, and it is not included in the prescribed food expenses. After 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the tea carts of the Western restaurant brought a variety of dim sum, snacks and meat dishes to the Yuan Mansion, as well as a batch of good business. Three meals a day, although they were opened on time as usual, most of these people did not eat, and the male and female servants could eat them. After dinner, the wives, young masters, and ladies smoked opium and played mahjong. At about 9 o'clock in the evening, I went to brothels, theaters, dance halls and other places to have fun, and at 12 o'clock at night, I often had a late-night snack in southern restaurants such as Bei Anli, Xianji, and Zizhulin in the French Concession. It wasn't until two or three o'clock that they went home to sleep. Every day when they went out and came home, their clothes, shoes, and hats were dressed and taken off by male and female servants, who only raised their arms, stretched their legs and feet, and never did it themselves. The cosmetics of the young master and the young lady each have a five-drawer cabinet, which is filled with all kinds of perfumes, and the perfume bottles are umbrella-type, human-shaped, animal-shaped, insect-shaped and bird-shaped, and strange, mostly French.
In the summer of 1923, Yuan Keqi's youngest daughter, Jia Hong, fell ill and asked me to go for treatment. Because the child is very ill, he needs me to take more care of him and leave me for dinner. At that time, my father had not died of illness for 100 days, and I had to eat vegetarian food for 100 days as usual. I explain the situation and stand firm. Keqi's mother, Wu Shi, said: "If you are vegetarian, I will make you a few vegetarians." "Six dishes were served, including vegetarian mix, fried tofu skin, pigeon eggs, fried shrimp, braised carp and a bowl of fungus soup. But I refused to wait for the fish and shrimp, and when Wu Shi found out, he smiled and said: "You can eat it, it's all vegetarian." "I tasted it, and sure enough, it wasn't real fish or shrimp. At that time, I was surprised that if I left a doctor for a quick meal, I could make this dish right away, and the chef was a famous chef. The Yuan family's extreme desire for poverty and luxury can be seen.
Three
Since his father's death, Yuan Keding has worked as a high-class official in his own residence in the German Concession in Tianjin, leading the Kailuan Mining Bureau to supervise high salaries and squandering arbitrarily. In his later years, the family property was sold out, and his concubine Zhang Zhensui also divorced him. He once lived in his relative, Zhang Boju, in Beijing's Haidian Garden. Finally, he rented a small room in Haidian and finally collapsed and died. Yuan Keding was the most demanding on the left and right in his life, so the servants did not have a good impression of him, and the servants who handled the finances on his behalf deceived him in many ways, and he could not detect it. As far as his family's purchase of daily necessities is concerned, the number room, the housekeeper, etc. secretly have a 30% rebate. I treated his home, settled the consultation fee in three sessions, and when I paid, the concierge also asked for a 30% rebate.
Yuan Kevin was born in North Korea in 1890. When he was 11 years old, Yuan Shikai wanted him to be engaged to Zhixian, the third daughter of Tianjin Yan Xiu, but Yan Xiu declined. Later, he married Liu Meizhen, the daughter of Liu Shangwen, the alternate Dao. In the spring of the first year of the Republic of China, part of Yuan Shikai's family lived in Tianjin, and Kewen once listened to a play in a box with his wife Liu Meizhen and his sixth aunt Ye Shi. Because Ye was transformed into a girl, he aroused the suspicion of Keliang (Keliang had been mentally ill since childhood), and later came to Beijing to exaggerate and expose it to Yuan Shikai. This made Yuan Shikai very angry, and summoned Kewen to the front to order him to kneel down and pick up a stick to beat. At that time, Kewen's old nanny knelt on Kewen's body, and Liu Meizhen also held only ... · The one-year-old young son's family knelt on the side and begged, and Yuan Shikai drank Kewen to get away. In order to avoid his father, Yuan Kewen made up some words, asked Wu Shi, the aunt of the housekeeper at the time, for a passbook of 100,000 yuan to take to Shanghai, squandered it wildly, and joined the Qing Gang at that time. Later, after interceding with Yuan Shikai at Fang Dishan in the Yuan Jiaojiao's family hall, Yuan Shikai was angry, and Kewen returned to Beijing. After Yuan Shikai's death, Yuan Kewen indulged in eroticism and had an addiction to opium. In 1934 I fell ill with scarlet fever, and I visited him when he was seriously ill. He died at the age of 44. There are legends outside that he was poisoned, which is not true.
When Yuan Shikai retired to Shangcun at the end of the Qing Dynasty, he asked his sons Keduan and Kequan brothers to study at Nankai School in Tianjin, stating that he was willing to donate 3,000 yuan to the school, and asked that his two sons be allowed to bring two escorts of "Goshiha" (Manchu, that is, horse bow). Principal Zhang Boling was afraid that he would cause trouble in the school and refused. Yuan Shikai transferred them to Xinxue College, also on the condition of donating 3,000 yuan to the college. Therefore, the new academy built a "Yuan Palace Protection Hall" to commemorate it. After graduating from Xinxue College, Keduan did not go on to further education, married the daughter of He Zhongjin, and had a son, a family gift, a family guest and a female family member. Since Yuan Shikai's death, the couple have smoked opium, played all day long, and profligate. Family gifts and guests are also studying at Xinxue College. In the autumn of one year (I can't remember the year), they had to pay tuition fees at the beginning of school, but the Keduan couple refused to give it, saying to them: "There is no money at home, but you can go to your grandfather (referring to Keding), he keeps the public funds left by your grandfather." Keding gave the family gift and the guest 50 yuan, and the two of them hurriedly paid the tuition and miscellaneous fees without telling their parents. His mother knew that she was going to come less, and she wanted to use this money to buy cigarettes first, so she forced her son to ask for tuition and miscellaneous fees, saying that he would ask his uncle when the school wanted it. The family gift was helpless, and said to the college that the family had an urgent use, and it would be taken back for the time being, and it would be paid back later. At that time, the Yuan family's momentum was no longer comparable to the past, and the school authorities refused to return it under the pretext of the school constitution. When the two returned home, their mother forced them to ask for it again. The family gift was extremely angry, and felt that life was better than death in such a family, so he used the remaining few yuan to buy a large cigarette bubble and let his brother eat it with him and commit suicide. The guest refused, the family gift swallowed alone, and the poison rolled around the house after the poison, and the guest cried in fright. When Mr. and Mrs. Keduan knew, it was 11 o'clock at night. They called me and asked me for treatment. I heard that he had drunk a lot of cigarettes and told him to hurry up and ask for a Dr. Chen (forgot his name). The next morning, I asked about the treatment and replied that the man had died by 2 o'clock at night. In the afternoon, I went to his house to offer my condolences, and Ho Shi was still crying. But when she turned over a lot of the remaining smoke bubbles under the house gift bedding, she stopped crying and quickly took it to her room and lay on the bed and smoked it. Later, I asked how Jiali died so quickly? Chen said: "When I arrived, his family had already poured a lot of thick pancreatic water into Qiang, which flowed into the trachea and suffocated people. Keduan once asked Keding to subsidize his family within public funds, but Keding only gave him 30 yuan a month, and Keduan and his wife spent all their money in one day. Later, it was changed to one dollar a day. Although the situation of the couple was already like this, when Mei Lanfang came to Tianjin to act, she also wore a leather robe, set a private room, and went to listen to the play together.
In 1914, Yuan Kequan and his brothers Kehuan and Keqi went to England with Yan Xiu to study, but were recalled before Yuan was ready to become emperor. Kequan married Tao Yong, the third daughter of Duanfang, and married richly, and both husband and wife smoked opium after marriage. He suffered from heart disease for a long time. His mother-in-law lived with her daughter in Yuan's house, and her addiction to opium was even greater, and she did not leave the house all year round. The property she brought to her daughter's house had many precious antiques. I saw a palace shawl with beaded diamonds. A jadeite ring she wore on her hand was later sold for 50,000 yuan. There is also a small copper table 2 feet long, 1 and a half feet wide, and about 3 feet high, green and rusty, with seal characters on it. Duanfang's wife once said to me: "This is an antiquity, which the adult (referring to Duanfang) bought from Chang'an, Shaanxi Province, and his favorite before his death." "In the 13th year of the Republic of China, the Yuan family sold it to foreigners for 120,000 yuan. I also saw three pieces of the Huashan Han stele, which are also said to be precious, after Duanfang's wife died, her son took a copy, Yuan Kehuan wanted to go to one, and Tao Yong kept one. After Tao Yong's death, this thing did not know where to return.
Yuan Keqi married Sun Yongxi, the daughter of Sun Baoqi, and both husband and wife also smoked a lot of cigarettes, and believed in the Tao, and talked about Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yah, and Hui all day long. Sun Yongxi bought a handmaid named Zhang Lumin, who was only 15 years old in 1937 and was raped and pregnant by Keqi. Sun Yongxi was afraid of the ugliness of his family, so he asked me to find a way, so I introduced Lu Min to my friend Liu Ruizhu's house at No. 7 Ministry of Justice Street in Beijing to give birth, and later gave birth to a boy. Sun Yongxi did not want their mother and son to return to Tianjin together, so he fostered the boy in a family and received a monthly subsidy of 40 yuan. Within two months, the boy died. Lu Min returned to Tianjin to still work as a handmaid. One afternoon in the fall of 1948, Sun Yongxi came to me and said, "Lu Min is drinking a lot of smoke now, please go to the rescue quickly." "I asked her to quickly ask Dr. Yuan Dongcha for treatment, because the poisoning was too deep and could not be saved. Why does Lu Min drink big smoke? Sun Yongxi refused to talk about the details, and the matter went to the court, and in the end, Yuan Keqi spent some sports fees to close the case.
Yuan Kejian studied in the United States with his younger brother Kedu and nephew Jiarong. He stayed for a year and ran back, marrying the daughter of the Beiyang warlord Lu Jianzhang, and the marriage was very rich. Lu was the harshest with maids, and in the winter of 1918, Yuan Kejian asked me to see his 3-year-old boy. The child was very naughty, holding a black wooden ruler in his hand and hitting the nanny's face, the nanny dodged, and Lu said with a straight face: "What are you hiding!" Tell him to hit a few times and he won't make trouble. He is a little young master. "The nanny did not dare to return the favor, nor did she dare to hide anymore. The black wooden ruler was very heavy, and after a few strokes, the nanny's face became red and swollen, and tears flowed in her eyes. Lu Shi also scolded her directly: "What is the tightness of a few beatings for children, you pretend like this!" The little young master is sick, and it is unlucky for you to cry. "I really couldn't look past it, but at that time, for the sake of my own business, I didn't have the courage to dare to say Lu's, so I took a hasty look, left some medicine and left. In fact, the child did not have any serious illness, but ate a little more and stopped eating. Mr. and Mrs. Yuan both smoked opium. In addition to squandering his share of the inheritance, Kejian also sold more than 20 of his wife's properties in Shangyou in the British Concession. Later, he borrowed money from relatives and friends everywhere, cheated money, and became a rogue rogue. After liberation, he did not change his bad habits, and was finally arrested for a case of fraudulent wealth, and was arrested for labor reform. He died of illness in 1958.
Yuan Kedu is addicted to alcohol, drunk every time he drinks, and fools around in the dance hall all day long. Once, he took out 100 yuan each Bank of China bills (100 yuan bills were not common on the market at that time) and asked the dance hall tea servant to buy him cigarettes. Because the cigarette stall could not be changed, the tea servant gave him money to buy a box, and came back and said to Yuan Kedu: "I can't exchange such a big banknote, I bought a box for the twelfth master (referring to Yuan), and give it to me when there is change in the future." Yuan Kedu said proudly: "Give this banknote to you, I don't want it!" "At that time, the dance hall could not help but be shocked by his luxury.
In the late spring of 1929, more than 10 years after Yuan Shikai's death, his favorite concubine Ye Shi took me to Xiaobailou's residence for medical treatment. Ye's face was full of sadness and anger. After my examination, I advised her to explain her condition truthfully. She said: Jiang Ailan Hospital came out today. Menstruation had stopped for 3 months before being hospitalized, and he had been treated by Dr. Liang Baojian, who was said to have something long and needed to be hospitalized for surgery. Liang Baojian introduced Jiang Ailan Hospital. After arriving at the hospital, Liang invited a German female doctor to consult with Jiang Ailan. On the day of the operation, the three doctors called Ye's children to the operating room and took out a formed male fetus. On the third day after the operation, Ye suddenly had a high fever, but after the injection, he still did not heal, so he voluntarily discharged from the hospital and no longer called them for treatment. I found Jiang Ailan Hospital and Liang Baojian and asked if the above experience was true, and the operation fee alone cost 700 taels of silver. After that, I was treated for more than two months, a total of 75 visits, and the fee for each visit was 8 yuan and 5 jiao.
After the July Seven Incident in 1937, Ye lived with his son Kejie in Beijing's fried bean alley, manufactured white noodle drug trafficking, was arrested, sent to the court, and released only after Japan's surrender.
Yuan Kefan, the widow of Yuan Shikai, suffered from scarlet fever at the age of 13 and was mistakenly operated to death by German doctor Juncker. His old nursing mother stopped Juncker and wanted to sue the court (Kefan's mother was long dead). Juncker and Yuan Keding had a good relationship, so Yuke Ding came out and gave the nursing mother 3,000 yuan.
Yuan Ke'an also went to study in the United States for a time, and when he was a child, he hired Li Baohui, the sister of Li Dianchen, a salt merchant in Tianjin, as his wife. After returning to China, he fell in love with Zhang Yintang's granddaughter Zhang Meisheng and secretly made an alliance with the white head. His mother, Yang, because the Li family was rich, resolutely refused to allow Ke'an to marry Zhang, and detained Ke'an at home, cutting off his contacts with Zhang Meisheng. His brother Kejiu once gave Ke'an advice: first marry Li Baohui to get a good dowry to satisfy his mother's desires, and then marry Zhang Meisheng. Kean accepted the suggestion.
In December 1924, Yuan Kean married Li Baohui at the National Hotel in the French Concession in Tianjin, and sure enough, the Li family had a rich dowry. When the wedding was being held, Yuan Kean suddenly fell unconscious, and the guests were shocked, so they had to hurriedly pick Kean home, and the wedding ended hastily. Afterwards, I learned that when the wedding was held, Yuan Kean suddenly saw Zhang Meisheng coming, afraid that she would make a noise on the spot, and she was in a hurry to avoid the storm. After marriage, Yuan Kean was very cold to Li Baohui, and went to dance halls and played everywhere with Zhang Meisheng day and night, often not returning home. As the days went by, Li Baohui became depressed and became seriously ill. The Yuan family repeatedly invited me and Liang Baojian to go for diagnosis and treatment, but there was no improvement. When I finally went to see her when she was critically ill, she was already confused. It was only 8 months from marriage to death.
Yuan Kejiu proposed this strategy because his experience was similar. Kejiu has been engaged to Li Shaofang, the second daughter of Li Yuanhong, since childhood, and Shaofang suffers from neuropathy. He stayed in the United States and returned to China, knowing that Shaofang was ill, he secretly made an alliance with the dancer Li Xi. His mother, Yang, insisted on marrying Lai Shaofang first, and received a generous offer. After marriage, Li Shaofang was sent to live alone in a small courtyard, and then sent to an insane asylum. Kejiu immediately married Li Xi at this time.
(February 1966)
Source:
"Selected Manuscripts of Literary and Historical Materials"